Business ICT

PC House awarded Best Country Partner

PC House (Pvt) Ltd, recently received an award from US Robotics (USR) for being their ‘Best In-Country Partner’ in the South Asian region. This annual award is conferred to business partners that demonstrate the best performance in sales and marketing pertaining to USR equipment and peripherals.

Regional Sales Manager for USR, Sumit Kumar said, “From the time USR tied up with PC House we have seen a remarkable growth in our share in the Sri Lankan market and this is no doubt because of the tedious efforts and nonconformist approaches adopted by PC House.

US Robotics is pleased to honour PC House with this prestigious award for the outstanding sales performance they have recorded during the year 2007, which was not a very florid period where the country’s overall economic accomplishments are concerned.

PC House has been the exclusive distributor for USR products such as wired, wireless and ADSL equipment that covers Routers, Wireless Networking Equipment, Ethernet Switches and Cards Gigabit Switches and Cards since 2006.

Chairman of PC House S.H.M. Rishan said, “PC House has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1997. The outstanding performance of our company is attributed to the support given by our steadfast strategic partners such as USR, the committed team of professionals and the unwavering and growing loyal customer base.

The support extended by global giants such as USR is vital not only for the growth of companies like us but also to IT and communications industries in developing countries like Sri Lanka. The free flow of related knowledge, products and business practices are necessary to expand the industry scalabilities plus, to achieve sustainable growth.”

“The selection criteria for Best In-Country Partner award are quite stringent. It is not merely judged on a company’s performance in sales; but attention is paid to areas such as what a company has done in terms of increasing awareness on the latest available technology, the promptness of pre and post sales services, availability of the product, support and services available for resellers and end users and training and development of staff that handles USR products.

By commercialising the US Robotics products, PC House has managed to increase the internet penetration in Sri Lanka to substantially high levels and has been instrumental in placing the ICT industry on a higher platform.

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IT Industry salutes SLIIT students

At the recently held convocation ceremony of the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), two of its top students walked away with Gold Awards for best performance, sponsored IFS and Virtusa.

The IFS Gold medal for Best Overall Performer and Best Achiever was awarded to Liyanaarachchi Lekamlage Chamara Kasun while he was also recognised by the Prof. Karunaratne Gold Medal, awarded by Chairman of SLIIT Prof. S. Karunaratne.

The Virtusa Academic Excellence Award for Best Performer at the Final Year of the SLIIT BSc. Special Honours Degree was awarded to Chamira Isuru Meegahawatta.

Both students, who belong to a batch of 700, achieved an outstanding GPA (Grade Point Average) of 3.6 out of a total of 4.

The fact that IFS and Virtusa came forward with Gold Awards for these two students who excelled in their studies at SLIIT is a clear indication of the absolute confidence that the IT and Software industry has in the quality of the education provided at SLIIT.

The feedback from the industry in respect of SLIIT students has always been very encouraging and quite a number of leading IT and Software companies have already expressed their willingness to tie up with SLIIT to provide internships for students along with offers of future employment.

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ASUS launches latest PDA Phone P750

EPSI Computers, authorized distributor for ASUS in Sri Lanka announced that ASUS has introduced its latest PDA phone. the P750. GroupProduct Manager Epsi Computers Sankha Jayaratne stated. The P750 is a fully loaded Tri-Band GSM PDA phone with GPS capabilities as well as Wi-Fi, 3.5G with HSDPA and Bluetooth with A2DP connectivity. This particular model is also the winner of the 2007 Japan G-Mark Award.

The new gadget is equipped with powerful processor and 3.2 MP camera. The new ASUS P750 will work on the basis of Marvell PXA27x processor with clock frequency of 520 MHz under control of OS Mobile Windows 6 Professional and contain 64 MB of operative memory, also 256 MB, used for storage of programs and others.

One of the basic features of the device is the presence of GPS of chipset SiRFStar III. ASUS P750 supports cellular network standards GSM/GPRS/EDGE, and UMTS/HSDPA as well.

Jayaratne added that the handset is a complete business application and connectivity set that will allow users to carry their office communication device in their palms, especially among the young professionals as it’s a light weight smart phone that is heavy on features”.

He also stated that this Model will be available in Sri Lanka by the 20th April 2008. The ASUS P750 is powered by a 520MHz Marvell PXA270M processor and runs Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional.

It’s a tri-band GSM handset with GPRS/EDGE and 3G/HSDPA connectivity supporting download speeds of up to 3.6Mbps with suitable network coverage.

Both Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth (2.0+EDR) are integrated, and a SiRFStar III GPS receiver completes a full suite of wireless connectivity options for the P750 - WAN, LAN, PAN and satellite.

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Sri Lanka’s PC/Server Market decelerated in 2007

Registered 10.8% growth:

According to the latest data released by spring board Research Sri Lanka’s PC/Server market recorded 10.8% annual growth in 2007.

The island country registered 59,164 PC and server unit shipments in Q4 2007, per the latest Asia Emerging Countries Tracker report published by Springboard Research.

Springboard’s data also showed that PC/Server market growth in Q407 slowed down and it was 5.8% growth.

Nevertheless, the home segment and large enterprises in the telecom, banking and finance industries continued to generate business opportunities for hardware and software vendors in the country.

Springboard’s data further showed that among the brand players, HP continued to lead the market with 18.9% share in Q4 2007, followed by Dell and Lenovo.

Since the last quarter, Acer increased its portable market share on account of its sustained high growth rate.

HP recorded the highest growth in the portable segment in the quarter, while local player Maya recorded the highest desktop segment growth.

“Dependency on the government for driving IT growth continues to affect Sri Lanka’s ICT market conditions.” “But even with the constant fluctuations in the IT landscape, Sri Lanka’s PC/Server market continues to generate business opportunities for both MNCs and domestic players,” said Research Analyst at Springboard Research Shipra Sanganeria.

Looking ahead and considering the current market situation, Springboard Research expects Sri Lanka’s PC/Server market to witness continued volatility in upcoming quarters on account of the political unrest in the country, which will re-direct government attention from IT adoption initiatives.

However, the long-term market outlook is positive with Springboard predicting the market to expand at a CAGR of 12% until 2010, with the portable segment leading the growth.

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Sala introduces Wireless Desktop Combo and IP web cam

PROLINK introduces PKL4794G 2.4GHz the Wireless Desktop Combo and PIC 1002, the latest internet protocol based web cameras to Sri Lanka through their local partners

Sala Enterprises. This Wireless Key board and mouse could be connected to any computer. The mouse and keyboard combo utilize 2.4GHz wireless technology for an uninterrupted usage. As this sophisticated design does not require the line of sight, it enables you to move freely within a range of 10 meters.

An advanced laser mouse delivers you with fast, consistent performance and freedom of movement.

The wireless keyboard comes with an assortment of hot keys that allows you to navigate the web or shuffle for a random music mix as well as to access your e mail, web browser and media player.

More than a mere video conferencing tool, PIC 1002 can also function as a remote security monitoring device. The PIC 1002 can be easily wall mounted and features motion sensing and infrared technology and even send e mail alerts to users.

The video footage can be easily accessed from any internet browser.

PIC1002 could be connected to any ADSL router and could be mounted to any desired location. Other than the usual power and Ethernet port, IP camera also support a USB port to connect a USB web cam to serve as another IP camera, which would give a wide angle of coverage.

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Jaftea goes biometric

Cenmetrix Systems installed and integrated a biometric fingerprint time and attendance device at the Tea Department of Jafferjee Brothers. Jafferjee Brothers established in 1944, is a leading Sri Lankan family owned business conglomerate engaged in a diverse range of activities.

The Tea Department will be using the fingerprint reader to monitor the attendance of their staff.

Cenmetrix Systems, a subsidiary of Cenango (Pvt) Ltd, is a total biometric solutions company operating in USA and Sri Lanka.

Cenmetrix’s local portfolio includes fingerprint security access control/ time and attendance solutions to several other leading companies.